Two structural features distinguish fucose from other six-carbon sugars present in mammals: the lack of a hydroxyl group on the carbon at the 6-position (C-6) (thereby making it a deoxy sugar) and the L-configuration. It is equivalent to 6-deoxy-l-galactose.
In the fucose-containing glycan structures, fucosylated glycans, fucose can exist as a terminal modification or serve as an attachment point for adding other sugars.[3]
In human N-linked glycans, fucose is most commonly linked α-1,6 to the reducing terminal β-N-acetylglucosamine. However, fucose at the non-reducing termini linked α-1,2 to galactose forms the H antigen, the substructure of the A and B blood group antigens.
Fucose is released from fucose-containing polymers by an enzyme called α-fucosidase found in lysosomes.
l-Fucose has several potential applications in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and dietary supplements[4][5]
↑Garcia-Vaquero, M.; Rajauria, G.; O'Doherty, J.V.; Sweeney, T. (2017-09-01). "Polysaccharides from macroalgae: Recent advances, innovative technologies and challenges in extraction and purification" (in en). Food Research International99 (Pt 3): 1011–1020. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2016.11.016. ISSN0963-9969. PMID28865611.
↑Daniel J. Becker; John B. Lowe (July 2003). "Fucose: biosynthesis and biological function in mammals". Glycobiology13 (7): 41R–53R. doi:10.1093/glycob/cwg054. PMID12651883.
↑Daniel J. Moloney; Robert S. Haltiwanger (July 1999). "The O-linked fucose glycosylation pathway: identification and characterization of a uridine diphosphoglucose: fucose-[beta]1,3-glucosyltransferase activity from Chinese hamster ovary cells". Glycobiology9 (7): 679–687. doi:10.1093/glycob/9.7.679. PMID10362837.
↑Dalziel, Martin; Crispin, Max; Scanlan, Christopher N.; Zitzmann, Nicole; Dwek, Raymond A. (2014-01-03). "Emerging Principles for the Therapeutic Exploitation of Glycosylation" (in en). Science343 (6166): 1235681. doi:10.1126/science.1235681. ISSN0036-8075. PMID24385630.